The Real-Life Diet of Carolina Panthers Wide Receiver Xavier Legette, Who Will Be Eating Raccoon on Thanksgiving

Xavier Legette, the second-year pass catcher for the Carolina Panthers, unquestionably has the most unique diet in the NFL. That’s because it includes raccoon meat. Growing up in Mullins, South Carolina—a town of three square miles, which had a population of 4,026 at the 2020 census, and is a two-and-a-half-hour drive from both Charlotte and Charleston—gave him an incredibly specific palate. Woodland creatures were a firm yes. Meanwhile, vegetables weren’t on his radar at all.

Last year, as a rookie, he brought some leftover raccoon to the locker room so his teammates could try it for themselves. That was also when Legette revealed that bell peppers are “too exotic” for his tongue. Of course, being a starter in the NFL requires a more comprehensive plate beyond just what’s in the backyard. Legette has started to open his diet to flora, not just fauna, and has also ventured into the Scandinavian side of wellness.

With his Panthers making marked improvements (they’ve already surpassed their win total from all of last season) and Legette becoming part of the furniture, he’s also secured his very own sandwich at Bank of America Stadium. He got into the making of that—as well as how to prepare raccoon—and his appreciation for pork belly, tubed meat, and America’s favorite pasta dish.

GQ: Last year, you made a lot of waves by talking about your fondness for eating raccoon.

Xavier Legette: Mmm-hmm.

Is that still part of your life?

Well, it’s not on the regular anymore, just for holidays. So, this Thanksgiving I’ll have some. This Christmas, I’ll have some. Memorial Day weekend, I’ll have some.

How do you prepare it? What’s the best way to cook raccoon?

Well, we put it in a crockpot and we let the meat fall off the bone. We put it in a pan, put our seasoning and dress it how we dress it, and put it in the oven and let it dry out a little bit. You just bake it. But we keep a little tad bit of juice on it.

When you told everyone about this, were you surprised that no one else was really doing it? Growing up, did you think everyone was eating raccoon?

No. I didn’t really even think about it like that growing up. My daddy, he introduced it to me when I was a little man. Really, everybody that’s on my dad’s side of the family, all of them eat it. My mama’s side of the family didn’t really eat it like that. So, I was already up to it and hip to [the fact that] not everybody eat it.